The Livelihood Strategies of Dry Land Farmers in Karang Bayan Village, Indonesia

Provision of prosperous livelihood opportunities and effective supports for capacity building are necessary and strategic for effective poverty alleviation and equitable development in every country, including Indonesia. However, a mismatch between intervention and need of the target beneficiaries is widely reported in the literature. This problem is potentially reduced by better understanding the livelihood context of the target beneficiaries. This paper analyzed the livelihood assets and strategies of dry land farmers in relation to the opportunities available. The analyses were descriptive in nature and mainly based on primary data collected through in-depth interviews of 30 randomly selected households during November to December 2023. The analyses found that farmers attempted to sustainably improve their livelihoods by strategically utilize livelihood assets to realize the opportunities available for increasing income and reducing expenditure and vulnerability. The farmers’ principal strategies were increasing income by additional income sources, reducing expenditure by thrifty spending and increasing income, and reducing vulnerability by balancing expenditure with incomes, farm diversification, credit access, savings, and group participation. Identified policy implications were appropriate intervention programs for developing the livelihood opportunities and building livelihood asset capacities. The programs should include trainings on sustainable farming practice, animal husbandry, agroindustry, wood-base handcrafts, and financial and digital literacy; and facilitation for access to: formal financial services, the government credit and insurance schemes, the agroforestry scheme, piped drinking water and electricity services, and housing and residential improvement schemes.